Learning Chinese centered around a relevant theme—such as holidays, activities or movies—can make language lessons stick better in your mind, and make them more entertaining and engaging.

Today’s topic is a winter-themed list of Chinese adjectives. Do you know these descriptors?

There’s only one way to find out. Let’s dive in.

Warm Up: How to Use Adjectives in Chinese

There are several ways to use adjectives to modify nouns in Chinese. Let’s look at three common patterns:

1. Adjective + 的 (de) + noun

Using this template, we can easily create all sorts of adjective phrases. Here are some quick examples:

美味的热巧克力 (měi wèi de rè qiǎo kè lì) — delicious hot chocolate

美丽的雪花 (měi lì de xuě huā) — beautiful snowflakes

动人的圣诞歌曲 (dòng rén de shèng dàn gē qū) — touching Christmas songs

Omitting 的 (de)

You may notice in some cases 的 (de), the word signifying attribution, is omitted. This happens when the attribution is understood, and it sounds better for sentence flow to omit it. Examples:

圣诞歌曲 (shèng dàn gē qū) — Christmas songs

冬天衣服 (dōng tiān yī fú) — winter clothing

羊毛手套 (yáng máo shǒu tào) — lambswool mittens

2. 这 (zhè) + Noun + 是 (shì) + Adjective + 的 (de)

The above pattern forms the simple sentence structure: This (noun) is (adjective) + (attributive particle). It’s another pattern that can be used for an endless variety of adjective phrases. For example:

3. Noun + Qualifier + Adjective

This is another essential pattern for using adjectives in Chinese. Instead of using “is” to link a noun with an adjective, in Chinese, it’s acceptable to use a qualifier—such as “very,” “quite,” or “extremely”—to take the place of “is.” Here are some examples:

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